See Attachment for All RFP Details

The Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District (TBAISD) in Traverse City, Michigan issued a Request for Proposal on May 17, 2019 for enterprise backup Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions to support its 95% virtualized environment. The district is seeking vendors to provide one of two EMC configuration options: Option 1 features an EMC Unity 400H with 18 800GB SSDs, 1 hot spare, and 75 1.8TB 10K HDDs with 3 hot spares (107.71TB usable capacity), or Option 2 features an EMC Unity 450F with 23 3.84TB SSDs (65.58TB usable capacity). The procurement also includes 2 Brocade M6505 24-port 16Gb fiber channel switches, 3 HPE SN1200E dual-port 16Gb fiber channel HBAs, and a mandatory 3-year EMC service contract. Proposals must include detailed part numbers, product descriptions, pricing, shipping costs, technical specifications, and installation and configuration costs. The solution must deliver 99.9999% uptime with zero downtime capability, redundant dual active/active controllers with no single point of failure, scalability to hundreds of terabytes, VMware compatibility, and flash drive support. Vendor questions were accepted between May 17 and June 5, 2019, with proposals due by June 5, 2019 at 3:00 PM. Evaluation was scheduled between June 5 and June 17, 2019, with award announcement on June 18, 2019, and all proposals remain binding for 90 days from the due date.

The RFP does not specify any set-aside designations or restrictions limiting responses to particular organizational types or disadvantaged enterprises. TBAISD has been a Dell EMC customer for over 10 years and views the proposed investment in EMC technologies as strategically aligned with district needs, indicating a preference for solutions compatible with existing EMC infrastructure and Microsoft and Linux server environments backed by Veeam software. Only one of the two configuration options will be selected for purchase. Proposals should be directed to Brandi Reynolds at the district's main office. The RFP does not disclose a specific budget or award value range; however, the scope of equipment and services suggests a substantial capital procurement. Evaluation will be based on the vendor's ability to meet specified technical requirements and demonstrated previous client experience.